India

Kerala: CM posts video of reconstruction of road that became the defining symbol of 2018 floods

At the height of the calamitous floods in Kerala last year, a video of a road in Malappuram district caving in due to excessive force of floodwaters made it to all prominent television news channels in the country.

The video, purportedly shot on a cell phone by someone on one side of the wide concrete road, showed frightened locals on the other side watch the road succumb to nature’s fury. In a sweeping fashion, it became one of the defining symbols of the terrifying nature of the floods that claimed the lives of over 480 people in the state.

In the aftermath of the floods, a temporary walkway using bamboo poles was constructed with the help of the Army in Wandoor village, where the road once stood.

Today, after six months, the road has been fully repaired on a war footing by the state Public Works Department (PWD) and has been thrown open to the public. The repairs are part of the PWD’s state-wide rebuilding of key arterial roads and pathways which collapsed as a result of the floods. Read in Malayalam

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan Monday posted a video on his official Facebook account that showed the rebuilding of the road. Reconstruction efforts were carried out at a cost of Rs 25 lakhs.

“Few will forget the sight of a road being washed away in the floods of 2018. A moment that unveiled the monstrosity of that disaster,” he wrote. “The road, which was rebuilt in record time, is now fully serviceable,” he added.

The chief minister said the state PWD has completed repair works of 4,429 km length of roads and an additional length of 3,148 kms of roads are in the final stages of rebuilding. Another 64 designed roads, built to last long, are progressing as well, Vijayan wrote.